0:00

There were multiple times when the search parties

0:02

came here and scoured

0:04

the bluffs with fancy helicopters

0:06

and airplanes and boats and everything

0:09

else. But in the end, what really was

0:11

was the ocean stirring things up and calming

0:13

down again, and then diligent

0:15

people looking. No one that I know of witnessed

0:17

the accident. That's that's the word. Every time

0:19

I go by there, I think of those poor kids.

0:22

It's the part about those kids losing their life

0:24

that I think of the most, because

0:26

even though all of it and all the search

0:29

and rescue and all the people who came here, what I remember

0:31

is because I'm a father, the most important thing

0:33

is is that those kids don't go home and they don't

0:35

have a life. So I don't know what happened,

0:37

but I know that that's the end result of all of it. That's

0:41

Valentine Hail, also known

0:43

as VOW. He's the owner

0:45

of VAL's Towing in the Westport Community

0:48

Store, which is the social hub of

0:50

the town where the Hearts died. He

0:52

had a bird's eye view of what happened in the

0:55

aftermath of the crash.

0:57

It turns out Justine and I weren't the only

1:00

ones who couldn't stop thinking about this case.

1:03

People from as far away as Italy

1:05

and Australia wondered what had

1:07

happened to the hearts. And we're worried

1:09

about Hannah and Davante, whose

1:11

whereabouts were still unknown. But

1:14

in January two th nineteen, almost

1:17

ten months after the crash, officials

1:19

announced that a foot discovered near

1:21

the crash site belonged to Hannah. Davante's

1:25

body has not been found. From

1:28

Glamour and How Stuff Works, this

1:30

is Broken Hearts. I'm

1:34

Liz Egan and I'm Justine Harmon.

1:37

Our focus was on finding

1:39

the kids because we mainstream media

1:41

did not seem interested and

1:44

there wasn't a lot of articles about it, and I

1:46

thought, how can they just be a

1:48

race? That's Ami Atlas, who started

1:51

a Facebook group called Finding the Missing Heart

1:53

Children and Honoring the Heart Children back

1:55

in April. The heart story piqued

1:57

her interest, mostly because she felt

1:59

there was enough urgency to the search for the missing

2:02

kids. Amy's group now has two

2:04

hundred and seventy four members. There

2:06

are other groups, so many others,

2:09

Heart Family Case Discussion, which has

2:11

one thousand, four hundred and eleven members.

2:14

Heart Family Case discussion, this time

2:16

in all caps, with one hundred and seventy

2:18

members, What happened to the

2:20

Hearts, their history, the Crash, the

2:23

Kids four hundred and ninety

2:25

members, Heart Family Crash

2:27

Theories on one members,

2:30

and Let the Heart Shine, a two three

2:33

member closed group for people who quote

2:36

loved, knew, or were connected to

2:38

the Heart Family in some way.

2:40

In order to get into this one, you have to

2:42

explain how you knew the Hearts. Lauren

2:44

and Liz tried and failed. Apparently

2:47

it wasn't enough to have examined every photo,

2:50

read every article, and even taken

2:52

a virtual tour of their house via an

2:54

old real estate listing, because

2:56

no matter how much we felt like we knew the Hearts,

2:59

we did and actually know them at all. Last

3:03

Spring, I joined to Facebook groups

3:06

at the time they were at peak activity,

3:09

but conversation in both forums remains

3:11

busy to this day, with dozens

3:13

of comments following each picture or

3:15

post. In both groups, there's a

3:17

lot of discussion about adoption, about

3:20

Jen and Sarah's history of child abuse,

3:23

about whether or not they were racist, and

3:25

about whether or not the drive over the cliff

3:28

was premeditated or spontaneous. Did

3:31

Sarah know what Jen was planning to do was

3:34

one of them. Terminally ill members

3:36

even reached out to the Decalves about organizing

3:38

a search party. They debated about

3:41

the hearts financial situation, their clothing,

3:43

their smiles, their sleeping arrangements,

3:46

the contents of their refrigerator, their

3:48

decor, and even why Jen

3:50

and Sarah let their chickens roam free

3:52

in the house. For months,

3:54

I read every post and all the comments

3:57

in both groups. I was the quintessential

3:59

lurk, her never contributing to the conversation

4:02

myself, but still going numb while

4:04

I poured over pictures of the Hearts in happier

4:06

times. There are a lot

4:09

of disagreements in the Heart Facebook groups.

4:12

Several women and they're almost all women

4:14

as far as I can tell. Are members

4:16

in other groups too, and

4:18

tensions rise when a member of one group

4:20

share secrets with another group and word

4:22

trickles back to the original group. There's

4:25

discussion about who's racist and

4:27

classist and who's not, and who's

4:30

even entitled to level this charge in the first

4:32

place. The groups are pretty diverse,

4:34

both racially and geographically. The

4:37

most incendiary debate arises

4:39

again and again and again, and the conversation

4:42

goes on and on and on.

4:44

When someone suggests they might feel

4:46

a shred of sympathy for Jen and

4:48

Sarah, these people are swiftly

4:51

attacked, flamed to the point

4:53

of being char broiled. The

4:55

prevailing senses the Heart Moms

4:57

were monsters, and if you don't

5:00

agree, you should go start your own discussion

5:02

group for friends of mass murderers. As

5:05

much as I wonder why Jen kept her

5:07

foot on the gas, I also wonder

5:09

what drives someone to invest so

5:12

much time interacting with complete

5:14

strangers online. Seven

5:16

months after the accident, before

5:19

Hannah's foot was positively identified,

5:21

I decided to check in with Amy Atlas

5:24

to find out. The

5:26

group is called Finding the Missing

5:28

Heart Children and Honoring the

5:31

Heart Children. The short term goal

5:34

or to find Sierra,

5:36

Davonta, and Hannah now Davon, Dan, Hannas

5:38

and Sierra has been found, and also honoring

5:41

all the children for the abuse that

5:43

they endored and though that they did

5:45

not die in vain through longer term

5:48

solutions such as, you know, homeschool regulations

5:50

or adoption reform. I think that

5:53

at the maximum capacity we probably

5:55

had, maybe it was five people.

5:58

We asked people what

6:00

their skills were from you know, being the grant

6:02

writer, a lawyer, somebody

6:04

who's worked in the legislature, to

6:07

somebody's who's worked in social services,

6:09

community, you name it. We asked like

6:11

what people's skills were, and according to

6:13

that, we would assign people

6:16

have different responsibilities. At

6:18

the peak level, I would absolutely

6:20

say, you know, myself and a few others

6:23

who were working on this twenty hours a day.

6:25

So we were sleeping four hours and we

6:27

were doing this full time twenty

6:30

hours a day. That

6:32

is a serious commitment for someone with a family,

6:35

a career, a life. Amy

6:37

is a mom of two and a cookbook author who

6:40

happens to have a law degree. There really

6:42

were only about four of us

6:44

that were in the core group like

6:47

standing up twenty hours a day. Yeah,

6:49

and then there was probably a

6:51

group of you know, fifteen

6:54

people that had like a real interest in

6:56

helping. We were calling

6:58

all of the counties every single

7:01

day to all the different county

7:03

sheriffs to find out what was

7:05

happening with the search. That was all the counties

7:07

that Cannifer and Sarah drove through in Washington

7:11

and Oregon and California. From

7:13

calling there to having

7:15

correspondence with the FBI.

7:18

We also tried to organize

7:20

peaceful protests and also

7:23

create media awareness of the story. Didn't

7:25

die. We created flyers

7:27

for them and put them all over

7:29

everywhere we could on the web, from Facebook

7:32

pages to emailing different

7:34

inflorishers and asking them to speak out.

7:37

We'd also emailed their flyers

7:39

to a missing Christon organizations

7:42

or authorities and kind of like missing person

7:44

investigations. Mostly it was an

7:46

online effort. We tried to make an

7:49

effort where we would go to the

7:51

West Coast when there wasn't enough interest.

7:53

Unfortunately, I was ready to go out there.

7:55

Even when we gave it a tip to the FBI,

7:58

they didn't reach back out to us, and so we

8:00

sent an email to the press person for

8:02

the FBI. I think it was six

8:04

days for somebody to get back

8:06

to us, which I thought was rather

8:09

alarming since it was still very

8:11

much a case the same like they were looking into,

8:13

and it was a designated phone line

8:16

for tips. The FBI still

8:18

has a site soliciting information about

8:20

the heart crash, and the messaging

8:22

on there includes a warning that tips may

8:24

not be followed up on. But still

8:27

Amy was frustrated and when you're putting

8:30

that kind of time in it just was

8:32

frankly disgusting because it felt like,

8:35

Wow, there are lives were erased when they were living,

8:38

and now it's so easy to erase

8:40

them when they're not a lot. How

8:42

would you react if you found out your sister

8:45

or friend was investing twenty hours a

8:47

day in trying to solve a crime that

8:49

happened in a far away state involving

8:51

strangers. I asked

8:53

Amy what people in her life had to say about

8:55

it and how she knew when it was time to dial

8:57

back her time in the group. The

9:00

reaction from the people that I spoke with that

9:02

were offline was

9:04

mick. First of all, some people hadn't even heard

9:06

about the case, and then I sent them more

9:08

information about it, and they couldn't believe

9:11

that it wasn't something that they had heard

9:13

about or they hadn't recalled seeing

9:16

a headline of family drives off of a cliff

9:18

but didn't have all the information. But then

9:20

the people that did know about the case

9:22

a little more. It was a combination of

9:24

Wow, this is so wonderful that you're doing this,

9:27

and then there were a few people like, well,

9:29

why are you doing this? But I would

9:31

say by a large more people thought,

9:34

Wow, it's so great that somebody is

9:36

doing something. Sleuth groups

9:38

often pop up after an especially grizzly

9:40

crime, possibly as a receptacle

9:43

for all the emotions sparked by tragedy.

9:46

But there's a certain poetic justice to

9:48

the hearts immortalization on Facebook, considering

9:51

it was Jen's preferred mode of communication,

9:54

and in recent months we've uncovered another

9:56

world where she was equally entrenched. Jen

9:59

was an a a video gamer. The

10:01

name of her game of choice, ironically enough,

10:04

was Oz Broken Kingdom.

10:07

She played for hours on end while Sarah

10:09

was at work. That may explain why

10:11

Davante told Dana Decalb that his moms weren't

10:13

really paying attention to what went on at home. Jen

10:16

was a guild leader, which is kind of like being

10:18

a team captain, and she kept meticulous

10:21

handwritten notes of her players moves. Investigators

10:24

found pages and pages of them when she

10:26

died. We're

10:38

about to hear from Drew, who knew Jen

10:41

through the gaming world. He asked

10:43

us not to use his last name. If

10:45

my employer knew the amount of hours

10:47

I dedicated to gaming, I

10:50

would be fired. Drew met Jen when

10:52

they were both playing oz and ended up

10:54

in the same clan. If you're a gaming

10:57

novice like us, you might be wondering

10:59

what in the world this means. Online

11:01

gaming offers social components,

11:04

at least the best games do, and

11:06

to foster this social environment, they've

11:08

created these entities called clans,

11:11

and usually clans consist of about fifty

11:13

people, and you

11:16

join a clan and then you compete

11:19

against everyone else, and enjoining

11:21

a clan, the benefit you gain, of course, is

11:24

obviously the social component. In order

11:26

to keep you hooked, gaming

11:28

developers understand they have to

11:30

foster that social environment. So

11:33

what they'll do is offer you rewards

11:35

in game for being part of a clan.

11:39

And so to put it simply, if

11:41

you're highly competitives and

11:43

you also happen to like people on

11:46

any level, then you will

11:48

definitely join a clan because it's the

11:50

only way to really win. Jen

11:53

was a co leader of the clan

11:55

that I happened upon, and

11:58

she was good, and by good, I

12:00

mean she developed relationships

12:04

very quickly with people. With all clan

12:06

members, she got to know them on a personal

12:08

level, talking to people, making sure

12:10

everyone's good and Jin really

12:13

signed when there was a newcomer

12:16

if someone didn't know how

12:19

to conquer a particular part of the game.

12:21

That was her wheelhouse. She

12:23

loved the

12:26

the bird with a broken Wing. I

12:29

became part of the

12:31

leadership board for for that clan

12:33

with Jin, and we would

12:36

have conference calls on a fairly

12:38

regular basis where we would just touch

12:40

upon gaming concepts

12:43

on a weekly basis, you know, we would strategize.

12:46

Jen's clan was called Dropping Houses and

12:48

her screen name was simply Heart. There

12:51

were a bunch of different characters you could choose from.

12:53

Hers was the tin Man. Remember,

12:56

the tin Man was the one who went down the Yellow Brick Road

12:58

in search of a heart juice. As it

13:00

isn't unusual for a player to spend twelve to

13:02

fourteen hours a day building

13:04

a character, there's opportunities

13:07

in these games where you could have hours,

13:09

endless hours of intense concentration.

13:12

There would definitely be weeks where I mean,

13:14

just judging by her rank, it was clear

13:16

that she had spent a ridiculous

13:19

number of hours. Drew

13:22

describes Jen as highly competitive.

13:24

Another gamer we spoke to called her a

13:26

stone cold narcissist

13:29

because she kept her clan members on such a

13:31

tight leash, bossing them around at

13:33

all hours of the day. It

13:36

was common for Jen to sit near the top of the

13:38

rankings, not just the clan rankings,

13:40

but the individual ones, which is a bigger

13:42

deal. Team members teased her

13:44

about how she was the first to crack a really

13:47

complex part of the game. Drew

13:49

told her she must have developed a diagram to

13:51

figure it out. In fact, she

13:53

had. Sometime

13:55

in the summer of two thousand seventeen, Jen

13:57

abruptly left the game, claiming she wanted

14:00

to spend more time with her kids. Drew

14:02

believes her hasty departure was because of a conflict

14:05

with a fellow gamer who she believed

14:07

was cheating. Jen refused

14:09

to continue on if he stayed in the clan, and

14:12

when he didn't leave, she signed off

14:14

the chat with a picture of her kids at the beach.

14:18

She would consistently show photos

14:20

of her with her kids you

14:22

know in the woods, are all at the beach

14:24

or wherever in clan chat and

14:27

talk about these escapades

14:29

that they've gone on or that they are planning.

14:32

She taught and

14:35

nauseam about the

14:37

fact that they were adopted. But far more

14:39

than that, even just the amount of

14:41

oppression that she

14:44

experiences because

14:46

she is the mother

14:48

of black children. Jen

14:50

and Drew spent hours chatting about everything,

14:53

the game, politics, their

14:55

families, but he says there was one

14:57

subject that never came up. S

15:00

Aaron. She never once

15:03

and I'm talking like six months of

15:06

consistent talking. She never once

15:08

mentioned her wife Sarah

15:12

in personal communication with me or

15:14

in the clan chat. She

15:17

never mentioned her sexual

15:19

orientation to me um

15:21

For whatever reason, Drew happened

15:24

to check in with Jen shortly before she

15:26

died. We had both left the

15:28

game. I hadn't talked to her in several months,

15:30

and I just reached out to say, hey, see

15:32

how things were going. And in that

15:34

conversation and we got around

15:36

to uh talking about our real

15:39

life personas a little more. She

15:41

once again sided a scenario where

15:44

she was oppressed. She had been grocery shopping

15:46

with the kids and a person

15:49

in Lyne, you know, gave her a

15:51

nasty look because of

15:54

what she believes. She believes

15:56

it was because of the color of her kid's

15:58

skin. Yeah, she illustrated

16:01

that in far more words, but that was the

16:03

basic gist of it. And I really

16:05

did sympathize with her like I

16:10

wanted. It was clear that because

16:13

she talked about these scenarios so often,

16:17

Like it was pretty clear that she

16:19

was being hyperbolic, but

16:22

Jim was just such a fun personality

16:24

you couldn't help but give her the benefit of a doubt. So

16:27

I'm like, this is absurd.

16:29

I can't believe you're enduring this. Again. In

16:32

retrospect, I'm convinced that almost

16:34

none of it actually happened,

16:37

and that I guess I should preface this by saying,

16:39

I've never met anyone like Jim.

16:43

I think she became so fixated on

16:45

this persona that she really did become

16:47

convinced of it herself. And

16:50

you know, when she's following these statements

16:52

up with these these

16:54

photos of her precious

16:57

children like it, I mean,

16:59

it just it pulls

17:02

the dart strings. Drew has

17:04

five young kids, so he and Jen

17:07

bonded about the challenges of living in a

17:09

crowded house. Her message

17:11

to him enjoy it while it

17:13

lasts. He says he got the impression

17:16

that she missed being able to control her kids.

17:19

Who doesn't when they have teenagers. We

17:22

wondered, did she ever talk about her kids

17:24

being delayed? The way she communicated

17:26

it to me was more

17:29

focused on the idea that they were

17:31

developmentally delayed when she

17:34

adopted them, but thanks

17:36

to her efforts, they've come so

17:38

far. They're different people, they're

17:41

better people. Of course, the

17:43

bird with the broken wing, this sounds

17:45

like the Jen we've come to know. We wondered

17:48

if Jen talked about the kids futures Withdrew

17:51

never never once to

17:53

read now that she

17:55

was reportedly depriving them of food,

17:58

like it is in oriating,

18:01

like not just to me, but to all of us

18:03

who spent so much time online

18:05

with her, because we can't help but think that

18:08

the hours that she was devoting

18:10

to us and to our clan and

18:12

to our game, the money that

18:15

she was devoting to the game, it

18:17

should have it should

18:19

have gone to the children. When I realized

18:22

that she was a home school mom, I'm like, there's no way

18:24

in hell those kids are learning. I mean, really,

18:26

it's impossible with the

18:28

amount of time she spending on this game,

18:31

and with the with the gaming community there,

18:33

it's impossible that six kids

18:35

could be learning. Like many people

18:37

who thought they knew jenn Hart, Drew has really

18:39

struggled to figure out why she did what she

18:41

did. Her life had become

18:44

wrapped up in this

18:46

image that she so

18:48

carefully crafted this image

18:51

of her as this

18:54

doting mom and

18:56

champion of racial reconciliation.

18:59

Her life had become so identified,

19:02

she had identified herself by this

19:04

cause, if you will, that when

19:07

she came to grips with the fact that it

19:09

was all going to fall apart,

19:12

strangely enough, I think she took the same approach

19:14

that she took with that guy in the game. It was

19:17

like, Okay, it's either him or me, but

19:19

in this case it's it's all

19:21

of us. Either I get

19:24

to maintain my image,

19:28

my my preferred image, or

19:31

none of us get to maintain anything

19:33

at all. Drew also points a finger

19:36

at video games which give players a quick

19:38

hit of dopamine they come to crave. He

19:40

describes this phenomenon as quote

19:43

an endless rewards based experience.

19:45

I think about the Vegas shooter, and

19:48

his motive has been so elusive. He

19:50

was spending even more absurd

19:52

hours and money pulling this

19:55

random number generator, seeking

19:57

these flashing lights, this dopamine

20:00

it. And I think in

20:02

my experience, the more I played,

20:04

the less impressive

20:06

real the real world proved to

20:08

be. I have been described,

20:11

I hope, in some sense justifiably as

20:13

of like a pretty great dad, like

20:15

a very involved dad, like I really

20:18

do take my kids. Uh,

20:20

my wife and I both are very active with

20:22

our children. We love to go high team,

20:25

we love to play sports. We I mean, the list

20:27

goes on and on. But it's strange,

20:29

Like the more I played, the more in depth

20:31

I got into the game, the gaming

20:34

experience, the less interested

20:36

I was in playing catch with my son, the less

20:38

interested I was in spending time

20:40

with my wife. And I really like her, like

20:43

I really do, She's

20:45

great. But it's just I

20:48

was addicted, truly addicted

20:50

to these the highs that the game provided.

20:52

And then on top of that, I didn't want to let my clanmates

20:55

down, and like I wanted to

20:57

win, and I didn't want to let gen down. When

21:00

real life gets more stressful is

21:02

when the temptation to escape

21:05

and to this alternative life becomes

21:08

stronger. The game is

21:10

not the cause. I think

21:12

the game just creates

21:15

conditions that perhaps

21:17

contribute to acts like the

21:19

heart crash or the Vegas shooting. So

21:35

maybe Jen was running away from her real life,

21:38

from her six growing kids, who had little

21:40

to no education and uncertain futures,

21:43

into the arms of Facebook and video

21:45

games. It's sad if you think

21:47

about it. Of course you wish someone

21:49

had heeded the cause of the kids, but

21:51

you also wish Jen had gotten some help,

21:53

let someone come into the house and keep her company,

21:56

taking a walk with a friend, talked to

21:58

a therapist, joined to support group

22:00

for adoptive parents. Would

22:03

any of this have made a difference. The

22:05

source close to the family agrees that Jen

22:07

needed help. This person says, I

22:10

think that this whole thing comes down to she

22:13

was always trying to fix everybody else

22:15

and make herself look good, when

22:17

in fact she was the one who needed the help. Of

22:21

course, all of this begs the question where

22:24

was Sarah. Of all the people we've

22:26

spoken to, her coals colleague Cheryl

22:28

Hart is the one who knew Sarah best. She

22:33

had said that they used to just always go out and

22:35

go to concerts. They would go to shows and

22:38

and Jen was always really happy all the time

22:40

and stuff, and and now Jen

22:42

was just really closed off, and she was tired

22:45

all the time when she had migraines. When

22:47

Cheryl would press for details about

22:49

medications Jen might try, or whether

22:51

or not she was seeing a doctor, Sarah

22:54

shut down the conversation. She'd

22:56

get personal, but only to an extent.

22:59

And while Sarah was willing to acknowledge that Jen

23:01

might be suffering from depression, she

23:04

definitely didn't want to get into specifics other

23:07

details sharel remembers. The Hearts

23:09

had a family library, but the kids were only

23:11

allowed to check out two books at a time.

23:14

Jen never slept in a bed. She

23:16

always fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV.

23:19

She also wouldn't let Sarah wear her

23:21

hair in a ponytail. None of

23:23

this paints and portrait of the happiest marriage.

23:25

Jen had some sort of online

23:29

game that she ran through Facebook.

23:32

That was her escape ever

23:35

since, kind of like the whole thing went viral with

23:37

Davante. Yeah, she didn't want

23:39

to do the trips or the concerts or any

23:41

of that stuff, so she kind of did

23:43

the virtual world. Because

23:46

she did call the store

23:48

one morning. It was before we had opened,

23:51

so the call came to my desk, so

23:53

I had answered the phone and it

23:55

was a woman on the other end, and they had asked to speak

23:58

with Sarah Hart and my place her on hold,

24:00

and I told Sarah was for her, and

24:03

Sarah had gone into a complete

24:05

panic, and she

24:07

had gone into an office and shut the door, and

24:10

she came out about her about

24:13

ten to twelve minutes later, and

24:16

she had told us that it was

24:18

Jen that was on the phone and she was upset

24:21

with her because Sarah had not done

24:24

her part of that game for

24:26

the day, setting up

24:28

something. And Jen was really

24:30

upset because it was really

24:32

important that Sarah do whatever it was that she

24:34

was supposed to do for that game. She

24:37

was really upset. She had told Sarah

24:39

that that was her only out, that was her

24:42

only reason for living, and there was

24:44

no If she wasn't gonna help her

24:46

through that, then there was no reason for her to exist

24:48

anymore. He

24:50

just kind of gave me this look like of kind

24:53

of like fear. And I remember

24:55

making this comment like you're like an abused

24:57

wife, and she just kind of

24:59

gave me this look like no kidding,

25:02

and it just kind of kind of like the whole

25:04

tone kind of changed after that. It

25:07

was just like, Okay, something's

25:09

not right. Would

25:11

Cheryl have responded differently if Sarah

25:14

had described this kind of controlling behavior

25:16

coming from a man. Now,

25:18

it's like, oh, well, you're lesbians.

25:21

You guys can do whatever you want, and then you try

25:23

not to delve into their personal

25:25

relationship, and you don't know what boundaries

25:27

you can cross. Cheryl

25:30

says, Sarah was very open about her marriage

25:32

to Jen. She didn't try to hide

25:35

the fact that she was married to a woman. In

25:37

fact, she says, Sarah probably used the word

25:39

wife a hundred times a day,

25:42

to the point where other colleagues teased her about

25:44

it. She could never say Jen. It

25:47

was always my wife, my

25:49

wife, my wife, and it was like she

25:51

rarely ever called her by name. We just always

25:54

thought it was funny because it's like I didn't go around

25:56

saying, well, my husband and my husband that Cheryl

25:59

says, Sarah talked about what it was like to work long

26:01

hours and then go home and take over from

26:04

Jen, who had been alone with the kids all day.

26:06

Cheryl got the impression that Sarah did most of

26:08

the cooking. Sarah was also

26:10

open about the pressure of being the breadwinner.

26:13

She carried most of the credit card debt, which Cheryl

26:15

says was the result of everyday expenses and

26:17

home renovations. Sarah's unpaid

26:19

balance was over fourteen thousand dollars

26:22

as of March two, eighteen, and

26:24

Jen's was about two thousand dollars. According

26:26

to a report released after their death, not

26:29

astronomical, but enough to keep you up at night

26:31

if you're supporting a family of eight on forty five

26:33

thousand a year and you're about to lose your monthly

26:35

stipends for adopting kids out of foster care.

26:38

Sarah made a payment to her Discover card early

26:41

on the morning of the crash, which

26:43

suggests she didn't know what was going to happen later.

26:46

The payment also could have been an automatic one.

26:49

Some Facebook's loose speculate that the Hearts

26:52

decided to end it all because of their debt, But

26:54

while fourteen thousand dollars is no joke,

26:56

the bank wasn't foreclosing on their home, and

26:58

it doesn't seem so in surmountable that Jen

27:00

would kill the whole family. Another

27:03

persistent theory that one of the

27:05

Heart moms was terminally ill. In

27:08

a Facebook status update, Jen vaguely

27:10

blames health issues for a month long hiatus,

27:13

but nothing in our interviews and the Hearts emails

27:15

and paperwork points to any kind of physical

27:17

illness. It doesn't

27:19

seem like such a big lead to say Jen suffered

27:21

from depression, she was

27:23

isolated, she had removed herself

27:26

from real life. She didn't

27:28

have a strong support network, no

27:30

family nearby or in the flesh friends

27:32

she saw it regularly. Seven

27:36

months after the Hearts died, Lauren Smiley

27:38

made a trip to Mendocino County to talk

27:40

with Sheriff Tom Allman, who has been

27:42

leading the investigation since day one.

27:45

He was at the scene of the crash hours

27:48

after it happened and has returned

27:50

countless time since. Here's

27:52

Lauren. I stopped by the Mendocino

27:54

County Sheriff's office on my drive up

27:56

from San Francisco to the cliff. The

27:59

office is on edge of the county seat town

28:01

of Yukayah, right next to the jail.

28:04

Mendicino County is known for redwoods, marijuana

28:07

farms, and a inspiring coastline.

28:09

Alman has been the sheriff coroner here

28:11

for more than a decade. He looks like

28:13

the sheriff from the movies, white

28:15

fisherman, mustache, really ruddy skin.

28:18

A bust of George Washington sits behind

28:20

his desk. His start helmet

28:22

from his time as a civilian peacekeeper in

28:25

late nineties. Kast of Oh sits on a shelf.

28:27

My name is Tom Almond, I'm the sheriff

28:30

of Mendicino County and I've been sheriff

28:32

three terms. I'm about to start my fourth term, and I've

28:34

worked for the county. Listen,

28:37

I'm not going to downplay the super slouths because

28:39

we've gotten good information from people

28:41

who have found good information,

28:44

and so law enforcement would

28:46

be full party to say,

28:48

oh no, this is our job, go away. We're actually

28:50

sleuth too, you know. We can think of these things,

28:52

and we we work with chemists

28:56

and the forensic labs

28:58

and the old fashioned police work

29:01

of saying, you know, who done it? How

29:03

can we solve this crime. We are following

29:05

up leads and we're not putting out press releases

29:07

of of new shocking

29:10

information that we find to

29:12

satisfy some sluice curiosity.

29:15

Sheriff Allman told us something we hadn't heard before,

29:18

that there was a group of friends and acquaintances of

29:20

the Hearts who came from as far away as Minnesota

29:22

to help the search efforts. They

29:24

used the bluff where the family died as their home base.

29:27

There was a half dozen of them that were camped at

29:29

that pullout for three months,

29:31

four months. They would walk the beach. That's how the

29:34

one gentleman from back east was walking

29:36

the beach each morning he found the one body,

29:38

and and then the people who found

29:40

the foot and pants leg hernded over

29:42

to him, and he turned over to High Patrol, and High

29:44

Patrol gave it to us. The body Sheriff

29:47

Allman is referring to is Sierra Hart,

29:49

who was found two weeks after the accident. You

29:52

remember she was the twelve year old baby of the family.

29:55

She was small and spunky and

29:57

loved music and animals. The

29:59

foot, Sheriff Allman mentions was Hannah's.

30:02

She was the one who jumped out of her bedroom window

30:04

in the middle of the night. One

30:06

of the friends who came out to help with the search was

30:08

a man named A J. He drove

30:11

all the way from Minnesota shortly after the family

30:13

died and stayed until the beginning of June.

30:16

We weren't able to connect with a J directly.

30:18

He didn't respond to messages, but

30:21

Lauren chatted with thal Hale, a

30:23

local resident who got to know him pretty well. Here

30:25

she is to set the scene. As

30:28

you drive through the tiny town of Westport

30:30

on Highway one, you'll see an all

30:32

wood building with a Pepsi sign and one

30:35

gas pump that's VAL's

30:37

store. The highway

30:39

sign of announcing the town says there's

30:41

two residents, but locals

30:43

say only fifty actually live here full time,

30:45

and all seemed to know Val. People

30:48

kept telling me to go there. Inside

30:50

there's a small delhi with the menu written on

30:52

chalkboards and rows of groceries like

30:54

wine, cookine, oil, and toilet

30:56

paper to spare residents the half hour trip

30:59

so south to the bigger town Fort Brag. Locals

31:02

pin notices on an announcement board outside

31:05

handyman for hire, a support

31:07

group for people with depression. Val

31:09

has lived in the Westport since he

31:12

took over the store from his mom last

31:14

year. Everybody knows a j very

31:17

nice man, was super dedicated.

31:19

Even law enforcement was worried about how he

31:21

was going above and beyond, and uh, you

31:23

know, he's just a real nice spell on And he

31:25

gave you a different perspective to all the

31:27

rumors and all the speculation and all

31:29

the stuff. You know, because you you basically

31:31

have a tragic incident that looks almost

31:33

like a crime scene. No one's guilty until

31:36

you're proven guilty. But there's all these speculations

31:38

so it's really hard, and then you get a face

31:40

to some leaked a friend of the family, and

31:43

that it helped put a normal everyday

31:46

thing for us, especially in this real

31:48

small town. And a J brought that to us.

31:51

And he was also very polite, very

31:53

honest, and just really wanted to get to the bottom

31:55

of things. It wasn't really one way or the other. It was just wanting

31:57

to find and he did. Now

32:00

he did make a difference. Val

32:02

talked about how a J walked out on the cliffs

32:05

so far out the fire chief was concerned

32:07

he wouldn't make it back before dark. I

32:09

can't even imagine how many miles he walked on those beaches

32:12

and bluffs and drove around and sat

32:14

on the cliff with his binoculars day after

32:16

day after day after day after day. I mean, he was

32:18

just a figure of our town for months.

32:21

And you know, once you become a part of a little community

32:23

like this, it's not like Fox News where they come up

32:25

and set up their stuff and then you know, go

32:27

home. This was a whole different

32:29

thing, and it was interesting. It

32:32

was definitely nice to have, like I said, a

32:35

human connection to something that seemed hard

32:37

to put words with. Would he come into

32:39

your store about every day? Not

32:42

every day in the beginning, yes, every day and look

32:44

for um, you know, have questions

32:46

on what might be the word out on the street,

32:49

so to speak. And then it came

32:51

down to where would be a few times a week towards the end,

32:55

and what sort of tips did you share with him? Just

32:58

the tips of the weather on

33:00

what to look for. The

33:02

big tip for him was was when one

33:04

of my guys that I grew up with, it

33:06

was on the fire department, said, you know, there's

33:09

a certain way that the water, um,

33:11

the currents work and even though

33:13

the winds blowing south um where

33:15

that particular incident happened, we

33:18

need to look north in the bay north and

33:20

and he did, and he did, and he did, and that he

33:22

found stuff. He learned the

33:24

tricks of the trade very quickly. He

33:27

adopted himself. He hadn't been to the ocean, you

33:29

know, he didn't know about the civic and

33:32

you know, he adopted and he stayed dedicated. And

33:35

that was the key to everything. I mean, that was the key

33:37

to making the difference. Maybe

33:39

A j had it right. The key

33:41

to making a difference is about actually showing

33:43

up, lacing up a pair of boots

33:45

and walking along the cliffs rain or shine

33:47

alone or with other heart friends. A

33:50

j did that he was at the place

33:52

where his friends died and looked for them in real

33:54

life. He didn't just click through pictures

33:56

of them or sit in front of a computer a thousand

33:59

miles away. He didn't

34:01

try to piece together the clues from afar then

34:03

bounce ideas and hypotheses off strangers.

34:07

Maybe the key to real friendship is being there

34:09

in the flesh for better or worse,

34:12

in sickness and in health. As

34:14

Val said, some people look for

34:16

crowds and some people look for lonely

34:18

places. If we've learned

34:20

one thing from The Hearts, it's this there

34:23

are lots of lonely places in the world, too

34:26

many, and once you've lost yourself

34:28

in one of them, or several, as

34:30

we believe Gen did, it's

34:32

really hard to find your way back next

34:35

time. On Broken Hearts, we

34:38

assume that people who are abusive are

34:40

abusive both in their private lives

34:43

but also in their public lives. And

34:45

we know this now not to be true. Because

34:49

I was coming up here, I felt

34:51

like this sense of dread, a

34:54

corner of inquest, is going to, in

34:57

my opinion, give evidence

35:00

that will shock the consciousness

35:02

of people who are following this case.

35:05

This will be a water cooler conversation

35:07

throughout our nation. If

35:23

you suspect a child as being abused, call

35:26

one eight hundred for a child

35:29

that's one eight hundred numeral four

35:32

A C H I L

35:34

D. Or visit child help

35:37

dot org to find out how to

35:39

report your concerns. For

35:42

access to exclusive photos and videos

35:45

and documents about the case, visit

35:47

glamour dot com slash Broken

35:49

Hearts. Have questions for us about

35:52

this podcast, reach us on Twitter

35:54

at Glamour mag or at

35:56

Broken Hearts Pod. If you like what

35:58

you heard, leave us a view. Broken

36:01

Hearts is a joint production between Glamour

36:03

and How Stuff Works, with new episodes

36:05

dropping every Tuesday. Broken

36:08

Hearts is co hosted and co written

36:10

by Justine Harman and Elizabeth Egan

36:13

and edited by Wendy Nogal. Lauren

36:15

Smiley is our field reporter, Samantha

36:18

Barry is Glamour's editor in chief. Julie

36:21

Sheen and Dianna Buckman head up the business

36:24

side of this partnership. Joyce

36:26

Pandola, Pat Singer and Luke

36:28

Zeleski are a research team.

36:31

Jason Hope is executive producer on

36:33

behalf of How Stuff Works, along

36:35

with producers Julian Weller, ben Kie

36:37

Brick and Josh Sane. Special

36:39

thanks to Jen Lance